


Down The Rabbit Hole

by Alexthemedic



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 18:07:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18878473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexthemedic/pseuds/Alexthemedic
Summary: In an evening started for fun, friends find themselves hoping for the safe return of Jefferson & Killian after a portal is opened to Wonderland in Jefferson’s attempt to find himself all while Killian has been secretly hoping to propose to their marriage for weeks.





	Down The Rabbit Hole

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I started a couple months ago that I lost interest in. I am picking it back up and starting it in a new direction, hoping I am able to keep myself entertained to last a few chapters. Welcoming to suggestions for current or future works of any kind!

The hatter felt unusual going out, when didn’t he feel unusual, but he knew that Grace was in good hands, which is something he often times wasn’t able to say prior to their new life. But Jefferson knew that Killian quit accepting that excuse after the first three years they were together. Grace was older now, everyone was more familiar with each other, and the hatter didn’t have something he could come up with to validate a reason for saying no this time. Mary-Margaret and Emma were working on the school’s science fair projects tonight with Henry and Grace at Emma and Regina’s place. Regina decided she needed a break from all of the glue and cardboard, and David had relinquished his toddler duties off to Belle, who gladly welcomed Neal to have a sleepover with Gideon involving dinosaur figures and firetrucks. Even if some of them didn’t fully trust Rumple, they knew that they had to start letting him try to prove himself again. Even if that took a number of years to earn back trust.   
Hook had managed to swoon Jefferson out of the house, because he always seemed to be so content never leaving the safety of the walls of their home. The captain hated how content Jefferson had become, when he knew that he was deserving of so much more. He knew the half of it was because of how fearful the hatter was, rather constantly so, that something was going to come back and destroy any spark of happiness that he had finally managed to welcome into his life. Hook wasn’t going to let anything like that happen to his family. Not now, and not ever, again.   
“Let’s grab this booth, it’s close to the pool table. We can start a game. I’ll take a vodka sprite, and an order of hot wings.” David said towards the waitress, laying his jacket down on the corner of the booth. He was already headed towards the pool table, to get it set up to start a game with his friends.   
“A rum and coke for me, love, minus the coke. And, uh, ah how about one of the reuben sandwiches, with a side of fries.” The captain seemed content with his final order, and slid an arm around the hatter’s waist, who had just finished carefully setting his jacket atop his lovers next to David’s.  
“Any dry wine you have.” Jefferson flatly offered in the direction of the waitress. “ With the fish and chips, thank you.”  
“Bar food.” Regina grumbled, tossing her coat in the general direction of the others, and flipping her hair past her shoulder with a sickening grin as she chalked up her cue. Regina was always a winner. “I’ll have a gin and tonic, and I’ll take the house salad. Now who’s ready to lose.” She snarled, a breathtaking smile, and headed after David, while Jefferson was left sulking with Killian still hooked to his side, quite literally.  
After some ushering from the captain, the hatter rolled his eyes, but slumped away towards where Regina and David were already arguing over the table. “If I wanted to play games I would have stayed home and spent my time with Grace, like I owe her.” Jefferson said, taking a long drink of the red concoction that the waitress had brought over with the other drinks. Killian plopped an olive in his mouth and planted a kiss on the other man’s lips. “If anyone owes Grace time back, dear, it is Regina.” Killian carefully mumbled into the hatter’s neck, humming. It wasn’t that the friends didn't necessarily get along, but they were only still hardly friendly, after all of the years that most of them had become enemies over various subjects. Though, as it were, no one new was coming into the town, and no one was really ever going out. So that left the people to either decide to congregate and half attempt at starting anew, or to dismember each other in battle, which often times never ended like it was planned.   
The bar seemed to loudly hum with activity while the group went between turns slinging balls into various holes and tossing back drink after drink, until they started to finish off their food completely and the sound of quarters hitting the slot in the jukebox jarred everyone to realize actually how quiet the atmosphere was in perception to being as loud as believed. Jefferson could see a cautious disbelieving look at the corner of the captains glance towards the machine. So naturally Jefferson took to his direction to find a tall, slender female flipping the song selections. A sharp elbow prodded the hatter in the side, of which belonged to David, with a goofy grin on his face.   
“Come on, man. Your turn.” He slapped his teammates stick into the half-open palm and chugged what little remained of the drink he was in possession of before turning back to the table and trading the empty glass out with another in its place. “Right, sorry.” Jefferson mumbled a half slur, taking another quick look towards the direction of the woman before pressing himself down into position to play his turn. He carefully aimed the cue and missed where his aim was, leaving a ball wondering off into a distant corner, still atop the table up for grabs. His stomach instantly dropped, feeling his partners fleeting glance towards the mystery woman.  
“Losers.” Regina chimed in, sending a quick text to check in on Emma, whom she assumed should be headed off to bed after spending such a long evening with the projects. She loved the activity of her busy family, her whole life really, but everyone needed a break sometimes. And hers just happened to dose itself in a night away with company and drinks.  
It took quite a few seconds for the dose of reality to hit the hatter before it had gotten to anyone else. The delicately featured woman who was casually sipping her beer while twisting her body to the music was a very long timed relationship that Regina herself had set between Novice and Killian. It was actually at first a ploy, between herself and Peter Pan, to make the captain miserable during his time in Neverland, but it had easily become more than that. And was often times something that bothered the hatter when brought up in random argument between the two.  
“Shit.” David grumbled, clearing his throat and awkwardly resting his face against his hands on the cue as he stand, wobbly. “How’d she get back here. Probably another one of Regina’s games.” He stifled a laugh, getting a hardened look from the captain, and a slap to the back of the head from Regina.  
“I would do nothing of the sort, even if I could.” Regina snarled at him, forcefully slamming her glass to the table and storming off in the direction of the girl.  
Meanwhile in the background, the song she had carefully chosen, ‘Hook, by Blues Traveler’ played in the background of the now tense bar.  
The woman, Novice, did a sensual ditty, while the notes to the song played on.  
“And the hook brings you back.” She cheerfully and beautifully rang out flooding the bar with her angelic voice. While keeping an eye on the hatter, she bit her lip, gave a half giggle, and gleamed a pearly white smile towards him. You couple feel the hatred radiate off him like steaming heat.  
“Sonofabitch.” He growled, knocking a stool over with a swift, yet graceful sweep of his hand. He quickly threw his jacket on and adjusted the worn down hat on his head as he headed towards the door to make his way outside.  
You could faintly hear David and Regina starting off in a heated argument with her while he managed to wipe hot, stinging tears from his eyes before they found a way to fall from his face.  
“Jefferson love, please!” The captain pleaded, out of breath, from what sounded like a few blocks back, as the hatter began to take his pace from a jog to a run, heading towards the heavily wooded, dark forest before him.  
“I’m going back.” He half sobbed, to himself mostly, as he made his own path deeper into the woods. Heavy raindrops and whispering cascades of wind followed him as he made his way to no place in particular. The hat needed no known direction, just enough time, and space, to get him where he needed. Every so often he could hear Killian far off behind him, but calling out to him as he continued to search.  
After what felt like ages, but only so many more paces forwards, the hatter slumped to the ground and cried into the softness of it, collecting bunches of dirt into his hands and slamming them into the ground. He knew better than to be able to trust anyone, especially after everything they had all done to him. Nothing would ever be as it was. His chest ached deep as he felt twinges of pain that he could no longer control when he sucked in more air to try and calm himself in his grieving state. He knew this world was no place for him, and it was something he often reminded himself to not get caught up in believing that he wasn’t being played a pawn again in the misfortune of others like all his life before had been.  
He sat up, quickly wiping the remaining tears from the corners of his eyes, and choked back a single sob, as he raised himself up on his knees. He situated himself so that he was able to carefully spin the hat, and watch a thick blanket of green and purple smoke envelope the surround area.  
He took one last deep breath and gracefully dropped himself into the sunken ground before him that had created a portal to Wonderland where he had longed to go to meet with Alice, collect his thoughts, and maybe even get a little maddened. Just as the portal had begun to close itself up in the secrecy of the woods around it, the captain managed to throw himself into the portal moments behind Jefferson. He didn’t know where they were going, but he knew he wasn’t going to lose him after all of these years of chasing to find him. Wherever the hatter was going, Killian was was too. He was going to prove to him that loving him was where he was meant to be finally. And that meant that even if Jefferson jumped, the captain did, too. The pirate held tightly on to the ring that he had been playing with in his sweaty hand all night, his action of proposal to Jefferson finally, had been a mere thought for most of the evening, and the weeks prior to now, as he worked up the courage to actually do it. He wasn’t planning on losing Jefferson anytime soon, and he was going to prove that to him, once and for all. Especially if it involves showing him the depth of his love. World changing portals, or not, he was here to stay.


End file.
